Classical Anglican Churchman

With the coming together of the three St. Louis Provinces (the Anglican Catholic Church, the Anglican Province of Christ the King and the United Episcopal Church of North America), now is our chance to do some inventive things to solidify this unity, and grow the church at the same time. Following, I intend to put down my own ideas on how to bring this about, while at the same time honor the authority of the three different jurisdictions.

The first phase of my proposal involves the creation of an overall communion that will encompass all three of the jurisdictions until such time as corporate union is achieved. This Continuing Anglican Communion would serve to promote the advancement of the church through church planting, missions and other such things. The offices for this Communion would be opened in St. Louis, Missouri, with the eventual goal of building a Cathedral there and the establishment of an Episcopal See. This Episcopal See would eventually be the office of the Presiding Bishop of the new Communion, and a symbol of the unity of the Communion itself.

The second phase of my proposal would be to follow the lead of the new Anglican Church in North America, and begin a program of church planting, in order to build up our membership, and promote a better image of unity among Continuing Anglicans. We have had a history of argument and strife, and this would enable us to put all of that behind us in the pursuit of the advancement of the Kingdom of God. To assist with these new church plants, the three Provinces will begin to roll their Dioceses together to create regional Provinces. One in the Southeast, one in the Northeast, one in the Midwest, One in the Gulf States, and one on the Pacific Coast. To assist with this, a Seminary will be established in each of the five new provinces, building on the experience of the seminary already established by the APCK. These seminaries will be tooled to teach new Priests the techniques of establishing new churches.

In the third phase, the five new provinces will begin the establishment of Dioceses in each state, as they begin planting churches first in the big cities, then in the smaller cities across the country. This will work to bring the leadership of each Diocese to the local level, and alleviate the problem of Bishops having to do so much out of state traveling in order to make Episcopal Visits. The ultimate goal would be for each State to be a Province. Texas alone would be able to support two or three Dioceses alone, and North Carolina would be able to support two or three. As the new Provinces continue to grow, the old Provinces will be slowly done away with, or absorbed into the new ones, along with their churches.

If we don't set solid goals, we will fail to achieve the unity that we are striving for. Without that unity, then outside forces can come in and create even more strife with such things as Anglicanorum Coetibus. I feel that this is what God has called us to do, to advance the Kingdom of God and forget about our own little arguments that have driven a wedge between the Continuing Churches for such a long time. The time is now for us to act.